Steering mechanism for jetpropelled watercraft



Oct. 19, 1954 K. HANLEY STEERING vMECHNISM FOR JET-PROPELLED WATERCRAFT Filed July 13, 1953 INVJ BY Auf/ ATTORNEY Patented Oct. 19, 1954 STEERING MECHANISM FOR JET- PROPELLED WATERCRAFT Keenan Hanley, Prospect, Ohio, assgnor to Hanley Hydrojet, Inc., Prospect, 0hio, `a corporation of Ohio Application July 13, 1953, Serial No. 367,392

6 Claims.

This invention relates to jet-propelled watercraft, having particular reference to watercraft operated by engine-driven pump mechanism, and by which water under pressure is adapted to be discharged in the form of a jetted stream from a submerged, craft-mounted nozzle, the jetted stream reacting with the more static -body of water in which the craft is disposed in order to apply propulsion forces to the craft.

Apparatus of this character has been disclosed in my companion application executed of even date herewith and entitled Hydraulic Propulsion Mechanism for Watercraft, wherein is set forth an engine-driven centrifugal pump which, through an elbow-shaped conduit, delivers water under forced flow to a rotatably mounted nozzle member, the latter being mounted beneath the bottom of an associated boat, or other form of watercraft. Also, the apparatus includes a movable shut-off valve mounted in said conduit, or between the pump outlet and the nozzle member, so that when said valve occupies a position of closure, arresting water flow to the nozzle member, water, discharged under pressure from the pump, may be directed from its normal how and caused to travel through an auxiliary outlet connection for various practical uses, such, for example, as for fire-fighting purposes.

The present invention has for its objects, among others, to provide an improved steering and controlling mechanism for such enginedriven, hydraulically propelled watercraft, whereby to facilitate the operation of turning the rotatable nozzle member of the mechanism in controlling the direction of forward advance of an associated craft, the arresting of its forward progress, the reversal in a given direction of movement on the part of the craft, the operation of the associated shut-od valve, and other ancillary features of control; to provide in such control mechanism a pivotally movable operating lever which may be quickly rocked by manual operation to assume one of a plurality of operating positions, whereby, when the lever occupies the first of said positions, associated control devices will be actuated thereby to dispose the nozzle member so that the associated craft will move generally forwardly; when the lever is oscillated to assume a second position of adjustment, the nozzle member will be disposed in an oppositely facing position to that which it occupied in the first position of the lever, thereby causing the associated craft to move rearwardly, or to check its forward advance; and when the lever occupies a third or neutral position in which the nozzle member faces laterally,y the shut-o valve will be operated to arrest iiow of water under pump pressures to the nozzle member and to thereby admit of the diversion of water displaced by the pump through an auxiliary outlet for re fighting or other purposes; and to provide other improved features of construction and operation which will 'be in part obvious and in part pointed out hereinafter.

For a further understanding of the invention, therefore, reference is to be had to the following description and the accompanying drawing wherein has been illustrated a single but preferred embodiment of the invention.

In said drawing:

Fig. 1 is a side elevational view of a jet-propelled boat having the bottom thereof provided with a submerged turnable nozzle member;

Fig. 2 is a top plan view of the manually actuated steering and controlling mechanism of the present invention and by which the nozzle member may be turned to assume various operating positions in the propulsion of a boat equipped with the same Fig. 3 is a vertical longitudinal sectional view on the line 3 3 of Fig. 2;

Fig. 4 is a detail horizontal sectional view taken through a centrifugal pump employed in supplying the turnable nozzle member with water under pressure;

Fig. 5 is a detail plan view of the manifold lever used in the nozzle member actuating mechanism of the present invention.

Referring more particularly to the drawing, the numeral i designates a boat to which the appara- I' tus of the invention may be applied, the boat having a suitably constructed hull 2 formed with a bottom 3. Carried for turning movement about a vertical axis by the bottom 3 of the boat and arranged in a submerged position below the same, preferably between the bow 4 and the stern 5 of the boat, is a nozzle member E. In this instance the nozzle member includes a hollow circular body portion 'l which terminates in a laterally directed water-jetting extension 8. The body portion 'l has a swiveled union in the circular discharge mouth provided in the downturned end of a conduit 9, the latter leading from the impeller chamber IE? of a centrifugal pump Il, a rotary enginedriven impeller being arranged in the chamber l0.

Rotation of the impeller causes water, drawn into the pump from outside the boat, to be advanced under pressure through the conduit 9 and forced through the nozzle member for discharge in the form of a continuous stream jetted from the nozzle extension 8. By this operation it will duit 9 to arrest water iiow from the pump II to thereof. In the mechanism as illustrated, there 1 is set forth a rock shaft I4 having its end portions journaled in spaced stationary bearings I5 and I6 mounted on the boat bottom 3. One end of the shaft carries in fixed relation therewith a main operating lever I1, the lower end of the latter being engageable with spaced depressions I8 provided in a side face of the bearing I5, whereby to frictionally but positively retain the lever in any one of its three positions of adjustment as shown in Fig. 3.

Fixed to the rock shaft I4, and located between its supporting bearings or brackets I5 and I6, are longitudinally spaced depending crankarms I9 and 20. The lower end of the arm I9 has pivotally connected therewith one end of a link 2l, the opposite end of said link being pivotally connected, as at 22, with one end of a floating manifold'lever 23. This lever has its intermediate portion slidably arranged in a guide slot 24 of a bottoni-carried strap mounting 25, while the end of the lever 23 opposite to that pivotally connected with the link 2l is pivotally joined, as at 26, with-the spherically socketed end 21 of a drag link 28.

Pivotally connected, as at 29, to an intermediate portion of the manifold lever 23 is one end of a longitudinally extending nozzle-operating rod 33. The opposite end of this rod, as shown in Figs. 2 and 3, is pivotally united, `as at 30a, with a slidably supported rack bar 3|, the teeth of which mesh with those of a gear pinion 32 carried on the upper end of a vertically extending shaft 33. The latter shaft is journaled in the downturned outer end of the pump conduit 9, the lower end of the shaft being xed to the nozzle member E so that it will turn in unison with the shaft 33 when the main lever I1 is rocked.

When the lever I1 occupies the full line position disclosed at the right of Fig. 2, the movement thereof in attaining such full line position rocks the manifold lever 23 to slide the rod 30 in a direction causing the gearing 3| and 32 to revolve the shaft 33 and the nozzle member 8 carried by its lower end. Such movement of the nozzle member causes the jet extension 8 to be rearwardly faced, so that when the pump II is operated, water supplied thereby under pressure to the nozzle member will issue in the form of a jetted stream into the main body of water in which the boat is disposed, causing forward or ahead movement of the boat.

When the lever I1 is rocked forwardly to assume the dotted line position indicated at the left of Fig. 3, the manifold lever 23 will be oscillated about the pivot 26 to its other extreme position of movement, so that the rod 30 and gearing `3| and 32 will turn the shaft 33 to cause the nozzle member 6 to face forwardly toward the bow4 of the boat. When so faced, the water jetted forwardly from the nozzle member may serve to produce astern or reverse movement of the boat or may be used to check or brake forward movement thereof.

It vwillV be noted thatin both the ahead and astern positions of the lever I1,-.the operating mechanism controlled thereby serves to mainrtain the shut-off valve I2 in an open position yproviding for unobstructed water flow from the pump I I to the nozzle member 6, since the valve I2 is of the butterfly type and is mounted to .turn vabout a vertical axis. As illustrated, the valve I2 is carried on a vertically journaled shaft 34, the upper endof the shaft carrying a pinion 35 which meshes with the teeth of a sliding rock bar 36. One end of this bar is pivotally connected, as at 31, with the rear end of a rod 38 which extends longitudinally of the boat in parallelism with the rod 30. .The vforward endof the rod A38 is pivotally joined, as at 39, withthe lower end of the depending arm 28 on the rock shaft I4.

It will be noted that when the lever Ilfoccupies its central or neutral position, the same will causethe shut-off valve I2 to assume its `position of closure, arresting water .flow to the nozzle member. In assuming its several operating positions, the lever I1 may be quickly actuated by hand, the detent construction I8, or its equivalent, beingfemployed `to hold the lever against accidental movement. When the valve I2 is closed, water under pump pressure maybe delivered through the valved auxiliary outlet I3 for various purposes. y 1

To provide for limited back and forth oscillating movement of the nozzle member when the lever I1 is positioned to produce ahead or astern propulsion ofthe boat, I employ the steering wheel mechanism S. This mechanism, as shown in Fig. `3, includes a hand manipulated wheel 40 mounted on the upper end of a shaft 4| rotatably supported in a stationary column 42. The lower end of the shaft carries a worm 43 which meshes with a worm gear 44 xed on one end of a shaft 45 which is journaled, asat 46. The outer end of the shaft 45 carries a fixed depending crank arm 41, the lower end of which is pivotally joined, as at 48, to the forward end of the drag link 28. l

It will be evident that with the use of the con struction disclosed, when the mechanism is manipulated to steer the associated craft, the main position-controlling lever I1 isretained in a fixed position, as, for instance, its ahead position. Then, in order to direct the craft either' to the right or left of a given straight .ahead course, the steering mechanisms is actuated with the lever I1 retained against movement. Turning of .the wheel 40 results in swinging the manifold lever 23 about its pivotal connection 22 so that the rod 30 may be longitudinally moved-a suffi cient distance to turn the nozzle member'to the right or left of its rearwardly rfacing position to steer the craft and change or modify'its course as maybe required. It is evident that the operation of the steering mechanism in this .connection does not rock the shaft I4 or the lever I1, ci; cause any change in the position of the valve I claim:

1. Apparatus yfor'steering' and controlling the operation of hydraulic boatpropelling mechanisms havinga turnable nozzle men-er,l compris-f dhr.

ing: a floating lever member, a manually oscillated rock shaft, a crank carried by said rock shaft, a motion-transmitting link pivotally connected at one end with said crank and at its other end with said lever member, a steering gear mechanism including an oscillating arm, a drag' link pivotally uniting the outer end of said arm with said lever member, a nozzle-actuating rod pivotally connected at one end with said lever member at a position disposed between the pivotal connections joining said member with said crankconnected link and said arm-operated drag link, and means cooperative with the opposite end of said rod to effect turning movement of an associated nozzle member upon rocking movement of said lever member about either of its pivotal connections with said links.

2. Apparatus for steering and controlling the operation of hydraulic boat-propelling mechanisms as defined in claim 1, and wherein said steering gear mechanism includes intermeshing worm gearing in effecting oscillation of said arm.

3. Control apparatus for hydraulic boat-propelling mechanisms as defined in claim 1, and wherein said rock shaft has xed thereto a manually operated lever arm by which rocking movement of the shaft is effected, and means cooperative with said lever arm to maintain the same positively in its several positions of adjustment.

4. Control apparatus for hydraulic boat-propelling mechanisms as dened in claim 1, and wherein said rock shaft includes a second crank mounted thereon for rocking movement in unison therewith, and a propelling mechanism control pivotally connected with said second crank.

5. Apparatus for. steering and controlling the operation of a boat propelled by a hydraulic mechanism, said mechanism being of the type embodying a hydraulic pump, a turnable nozzle member to which water is supplied under pressure from the outlet of said pump, and a movable valve for arresting the now of water to said nozzle member, said apparatus comprising: an oscillating lever member; a pair of separate manually actuated oscillatory operating devices; linkage means pivotally connecting said devices with opposite ends of said lever member, each of said` operating devices being movable to cause said lever member to oscillate about the point of pivotal connection of said lever member with the linkage means connected with the other of said operating devices; connecting rod means pivotally uniting said lever member intermediate its ends with the turnable nozzle member of said mechanism; and other connecting rod means uniting one only of said operating devices with the shutoi valve of said mechanism for controlling the position of said valve and, thereby, the Ilow of water to said nozzle member.

6. Apparatus for steering and controlling a watercraft having a hydraulic propulsion mechanism including a hydraulic pump, a turnable nozzle member connected with the discharge of the pump and adapted to forcibly discharge water under pressure in propelling said watercraft, said apparatus comprising: an oscillatory lever member; a pivotally movable, manually actuated lever arm; an oscillatory crank pivotally connected with one end of said lever member; manually operated Worm gear mechanism connected to oscillate said crank; means pivotally connecting said arm to the other end of said lever member, said lever member being arranged to pivot about either of its points of pivotal connection with said crank or said last-named means; and connecting rod means linked at one end with said lever member and connected at its opposite end with said turnable nozzle member for imparting turning movement to said nozzle member in response to oscillating movement of said lever member.

References Cited in the le of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 2,276,193 Hanley Mar. 10, 1942 OTHER REFERENCES Popular Science, February 1950, pp. 128 and 129. 

